Like it or not: ratings are back in 3D Warehouse

Now, you can "like" models in order to upvote them and store them in your liked models tab. Model courtesy of samothrace41

As you already know, 3D Warehouse is an amazing collection of models of almost anything and everything in the world—from minions to ZZ Top. But sometimes finding the right model can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. User ratings are important signal about a model that lets you know whether other users have vouched for its greatness!

When we re-launched 3D Warehouse earlier this year, there were a few things missing. Perhaps the most commonly asked-about feature, was the old ratings system.

The task of implementing ratings on the new 3D Warehouse gave us the opportunity to re-think the measure of model quality we wanted to capture. Ultimately, when we took a close look at our old 5-star rating system we came to the conclusion that 5 stars was about 4 too many.

When we looked at the data, about 85% of the ratings were either 5-star or 1-star. By and large, people either like a model, or they don’t. This finding wasn’t that surprising since the criteria for 2, 3, and 4-star ratings probably varies from person to person. For your information, with this new like system, we also migrated all of the historical ratings. Any existing ratings that were 3-stars or better were converted into a “Like.”

Another interesting factoid: it turns out that the #1 source of abuse reports from the old Warehouse were from people who filed complaints about their models being rated 1-star. We like the idea of people using ratings to give each other a pat on the back, and acknowledge each other for uploading great stuff. We’re not as fired up about trolls and bullies who cruise around the site and harass others.

We also took into consideration the notion that star rating systems ask a lot from people. After all, your idea of a model that’s deserving of a 4-star rating is probably different than my idea of a 4-star rating. Unfortunately, the subjectivity that goes into the in between ratings often lead to an ambiguous measure of quality.

The new system is simple: you either like something, or not. Your praise for someone else’s work still helps other people find it better, and if a model isn’t to your liking, not up-voting it doesn’t -- and no one’s feelings get hurt.

Even better, liking a model now has an upside for the “liker” as well. When you sign into your 3D Warehouse account and go to your My Warehouse page, you’ll see a new tab for “Liked Models” (see Fig 2) making it easy to get to the models you like time and time again.

￼ Fig 2. Keep track of models you like with the Liked Models Tab

You might also notice that a Likes stat has been added to the Model info panel (see Fig 3-1) –and it’s click-able. If you click the Likes link, a panel will slide out from the right side of the screen, containing the list of users who liked that model (see Fig 3-2). You can also see how many models each user has liked and click through to their profile page to see the models listed under their Liked Models tab.

￼Fig 3. Find the likes stat in the model info panel. Click on “Likes” to find out which users have liked the model

Lastly, we’ve also added Most Liked as a sort option for search results, so you can now filter your search results for model quality, as measured by the 3D Warehouse community. This is slightly different than the Popularity sort, which is based on download statistics.

We think this new system is a bit easier and maybe even friendlier for everyone, thereby encouraging more liking of more things. Hooray for love; ain’t it grand?

As the Product Manager for the SketchUp Viewer family of apps, Mike is obsessed with delivering awesome products for SketchUp users the world over. When he's not busy sifting through feature requests or otherwise staring at brightly lit screens, Mike enjoys spending time with his family and pedaling hither and thither. Go Bears!